Cop Gets Investigated Because MySpace Friend Links To Porn

from the you-have-to-be-kidding dept

Rich Kulawiec writes in to let us know about a ridiculous situation in Florida, that has some similarities to the ridiculous Julie Amero situation. Basically, a bunch of school officials and local newspaper folks are freaking out about the potential for students to access porn and are blaming the wrong people while displaying stunning levels of ignorance.

The basics of the situation are pretty straightforward. A cop who works at a middle school in Florida has a MySpace account, that he set up with the approval of the police department and the school, hoping it would allow him to connect with the kids he's supposed to be protecting. One of his many, many friends on MySpace happened to link to a porn site on their own profile. So, because one friend out of a huge list of friends happens to link to a porn page, the cop is now under investigation with the local paper dramatizing the situation by noting that students could (gasp!) get to porn "in just three clicks." Apparently, they're investigating whether the officer is criminally liable for exposing children to inappropriate content -- yes, because someone on his friend's list linked to porn. Under that definition, an awful lot of people are probably guilty.

Ah, but the story gets better (or worse, actually). You see, after some investigation, people noticed that the school's own website actually linked directly to a porn site itself -- which would seem a lot worse than what the police officer did. In this case, the school had a list of "resources" and one of the links was on a domain that had expired and was taken over by a porn site. Now, using the logic that the school used in having the police officer investigated, shouldn't the school officials also be investigated? Apparently not. Instead, they're angry about the changing domain and are looking at "legal recourse."

So, to summarize: If you happen to work at a school and have a MySpace profile where one friend of many links to a porn site via his own MySpace page: potentially illegal exposure of porn to children. If you work at a school and set up a website that directly links to porn: you're a victim who should be suing the website in question. Very logical.

here is a link

So basiclly if you work at schools you should have zero external links because you cannot control them

Also as a school network administrator you should bar total access to the internet because no matter where you go on the web, porn is 3 clicks or less away

This was probably started by the parent of of kid this cop busted in the first place...though got to ask why does a middle school have a cop assigned to it in the first place? Has the US really reached the sorry stage that schools for 11 to 15 year olds need a cop permanently on site?

Won't someone PLEASE think of the children!?!

computers can summon porn from the ether

if you take a brand new dell out of the box and power it on and let it sit. don't plug it in to anything, and don't touch it. just lock it in a room and let it run, i guarantee you 3 things will happen:

1) there will be dust inside the case
2) the keys will become sticky
3) there will be porn on the hard drive

Porn at School! ! ! !

Damn I knew I should have went to that school. I love the fact at how in the closet we Americans are when it comes to intimate relations no matter how sensual or dirty they maybe. Hell stuff like this happens all the time. I wonder how many of the students parents are in video's on the net or practice what devote Christians could consider to be lude acts.

WOOT GO KINKY BONDAGE PORN....

Chalk another one up to the belief that the human body isnt a work of art and should never be viewed like the work of art that it is. The Europeans found a way to cope with it, the Japanese found a way to cope with it... But us no... we have to tell our children its bad, and dirty... don't forget every time you see a naked person god kills a kitten.

Re: Porn at School! ! ! !

My understanding is the friend's link was also the result of a domain registry expiring. I hope this cop successfully sues every moron involved for defamation of character, slander or whatever other tort a half-decent lawyer can think of.

My God, a first year law student could get this cased tossed at the first hearing.

Personally, I'm just thankful that when the world is in a state of war, conflict, financial crashes and general bad shape, the government is spending taxpayer money and man hours working to ensure that our children won't get to see consensual adults having sex.

I'm glad that I can turn on the TV and have children listen about war, killings, suicide attacks, outbreaks of disease, and sensationalised stories about comets destroying the earth by some kind of magnetic electrical field or whatever, but am safe in the knowledge that when they log on to the world wide interweb, the government is doing its best to stop them seeing two people going at it like rabbits.

Re: Re: Porn at School! ! ! !

I find the word "tossed" offensive. My child may have possibly walked past behind me as I read your comment and seen the word, and assumed that you were talking about Masturbation using a common british slang expression.

You will be hearing from my lawyers. You too, techdirt. And firefox, since I have the page bookmarked using that client.

Tubes

Re:

The cop is probably the guy that does D.A.R.E. and speaks to the students. So he started a Myspace page so those students could talk to him when he's not at the school too I would imagine. I don't think assigned to the school in a protection role is what they are meaning.

Re: Won't someone PLEASE think of the children!?!

Thinking of the children = parents should be involved in protecting children if they don't want their kids to see this. At middle school age, the hormones are raging and half these kids are already exploring with this, that and anything else they can record off HBO after hours.

Re: Cops on site

Yes some middle schools really do need cops assigned to it on a permanent basis. Generally it's because the violence got so out of hand that the school administrators got tired of kids popping up dead on the lunch hour. Our middle school had 3 rent-a-cops and metal detectors at every entrance. We also had surveillance cameras covering the hallways, main grounds, and parking lot. Drug dogs came through weekly to check for firearms, drugs, and explosives. If we didn't go into lockdown at least once a month, it usually meant something was severely wrong. Let's not even talk about the high school. Thats just how it is these days. Oh, and I didn't live in the ghetto either.

SSchool officials fired for stupidity reporters se

OK so you never read a good headline like this any more. Folks the heard needs to be thinned and from what I continue to read by a lot. People like the school officials here need to be given power tools to play with then the problem would take care of it's self. Anyone for stick ball in in the West bound lane of I 40? Go ahead start with out me I will be there in a while.

God Forbid

God forbid the schools didn't block porn sites and malware sites. Oh, and God forbid that parents didn't actualy monitor what websites their children are cruising. I don't know too many kids out there in the 6 - 16 age range buying their own laptops and desktops.

That whole allegation is just ludicrous and pointing the finger at the wrong individual. Just because kids MISUSE a websites abilities for things other than what they're meant for, doesn't mean that company should have to change it's policies or procedures. It falls on the USER to make the right choice and on that user's PEERS to make the right choices.

DARE

At my High scool we had a dare office and we had 2 deputies that were assigned to our school and they were there for our protection. We had a high amount gang activity so it is possible that he was there as a part of a protection situation, maybe a confidant for kids that need help and are afraid of teachers or parents.

How many?

cop & porn site

I am so tired of people leaping to conclusions without looking at the big picture. Just because one of the "friends" links to porn is not a direct link to the police officer. The school should be under investigation for not maintaining their links as well.

Re: HA!!

Re:

In Los Angeles, most every high school and just about every middle school (what we used to call junior high) in the district now has either on-site armed school police officers or actual police substations, in the particularly bad neighborhoods.

In the worst neighborhoods, armed school officers patrol the elementary schools. While attending a friend's son's elementary school graduation, we were particularly amused to find that as we were leaving the school after the ceremony, LAPD SWAT officers in full riot gear, holding some pretty damned fearsome looking guns, were standing on the roof, and there were school police and LAPD squad cars everywhere. We didn't stick around to ask any questions.

I would sell my own blood for money or work the street corners of skid row before I would let my child attend one of these schools.

At least he didn't

So basically, they don't want these kids looking at porn, but they'll let them watch 300 or some other such movie wherein there is blood, guts and mass violence helping to elevate the issues with children instead of 2 people in the act of fornication and/or copulation, or to be more blunt, wild pig sex because it offends their delicate senses. Friends when sex is more offensive that a graphic decapitation on a big movie screen, it's time to get over ourselves. "I'd much rather my children see two people making love than killing each other". *Carlin quote* and yes, I do have children. Two of them. Would rather they watch a hustler vid than the decapitation of Nick Berg. Which is more easily accessable?

No surprise here...

Have had the opportunity to live in that state for more years then I ever want to admit, I moved north only weeks after quiting my job, and work 28 years in their government I have to say it has to be the stupidest place in the United States. You only have to watch the news every day to know that.

Sad part is the jerks who said that will get away with it and continue TEACHING AMERICA'S CHILDREN!

Re: Sex vs Violence

The typical argument these morons put up to defend the fact that they go batshit crazy over simple nudity while not giving a flip about depictions of horrific violence is that they believe that sex is something that kids can easily imitate, that it's something "real world", whereas the violence in movies like "300" and "Saw" is cartoonish and unrealistic, something that would never happen in reality.

Either intra-net or inter-net.

I have been a teacher in schools for the nearly ten years and have been involved with computers since the Apple II.

Every school I have said the same thing, either you have the internet and everything with it, or you don't -- there are no in-betweens.

It is absurd to "have" the internet and Net-nanny, useful sites get blocked constantly, in my last school anything that had a forum was blocked, anything that mentioned the word "games" was blocked. Looking up anything was a nightmare. It made the net useless.

Ironically the ability of pubescent boys to find porn even under the most draconian net-nanny is a wonder to behold. Some used Japanese words which Net-nanny allowed, but mobile phones where very popular display devices.

I have said and said again, if porn is such a hassle for the schools, spend the money and create a huge intra-net and simply copy sites to it. I am not a great believer in the use of internet in schools by students anyhow, but if they spent more attention on actual education and less time wasted patrolling kids finding porn, I would be a much happier teacher.

Computers could have been a great asset to education, they have turned into the greatest distraction, expensive toys that make it appear that students are learning when they are doing very little - all very sad. Far easier to run around worried sick that little Johnny might be looking at something he has spent some time and ingenuity in finding, than whether he has learnt anything much in school.

Those who can, do

One click actually

Launch firefox...

press ctrl-L

type in dirty website

press enter

browse porn

The sad thing is that these people being school administrators don't know a dang thing about their job. The most effective way to deal with in-school porn is to have the network admin setup a website log. That way they can see where everyone's been. No keyloggers, just a good internet monitor. Porn site? Right-click, block, and

If yall only knew..........

porn on a website link?

yall are fucking idiots, porn is everywhere in this time period, your mom can be looking at her self in the mirror and its considered porn, and three whole clicks f that s its easier to just type in porn and search the school officials are to worried about myspace and people actually trying to know the students rather than trying to prevent the shit that is going on at their school, and yeah personally i like porn its easier to get porn at school than under my parents noses